BJP Was Greedy For Power In J&K, And Spreading Anarchy, Says NDA Ally Shiv Sena

Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its exit from the Jammu and Kashmir government, NDA ally Shiv Sena on Thursday said that the party had spread anarchy in the state before leaving the government there.

In an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Sena said that the BJP had formed the government with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) only out of “greed” of power and compared its moving out of the government to the British leaving India in 1947.

Earlier this week, the BJP pulled out of its alliance with the PDP in J&K, claiming that it had become “untenable”. “Terrorism, violence, and radicalisation have risen and fundamental rights of citizens are in danger in the Valley,” Ram Madhav, BJP general secretary and architect of the alliance, told media while announcing the decision on June 19.

The Sena accused the BJP for putting the blame of rising violence only on the PDP. “The BJP opted out of power after spreading anarchy in the Valley. The situation has never before deteriorated to this extent, rivers of blood have never flown so extensively, and never have so many soldiers lost their lives before,” the Sena alleged.

In the run-up to the 2014 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked about dealing with terrorism in Kashmir and Pakistan with a “56-inch chest”, but those assurances have fallen flat, the Sena pointed out.

People in Jammu and Kashmir are so distressed with the increasing incidents of violence that they “feel the [previous] Congress-National Conference government was better,” the editorial claimed. The editorial also questioned the BJP over the promises made about “ghar wapsi” (homecoming) of the Kashmiri Pandits, and the repealing of Article 370 of the Constitution.

The Sena also took a jibe at demonetisation and alleged that it has only led to a rise in terrorism. “One of the reasons for demonetisation was to curb terrorism, but terrorism has increased a thousand times after demonetisation. Pakistani intrusions have increased. More soldiers are dying, despite no ongoing war. When you failed to stop all this, you pinned the blame on the PDP. The Britishers, too, had decamped in a similar manner.”

This is not the first time the Sena has given its NDA ally a hard time over Kashmir. Last week, it had slammed the BJP for the “violence, bloodbath and series of killings” in Kashmir, including the killing of Shujaat Bukhari, the editor of the newspaper ‘Rising Kashmir’.

The Sena has been constantly reiterating in the media that it will contest the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections on its own even after a recent meeting between Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and BJP president Amit Shah. On its 52nd foundation day on June 19, Thackeray had mocked the BJP again, though he did not explicitly talk about his party’s decision regarding an alliance between the two parties.